The Doer/Dexter Model: Political Marketing and the NDP 1988 to 2009 by Michael Moyes A Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies of The University of Manitoba in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of MASTER OF ARTS Department of Political Studies University of Manitoba Winnipeg Copyright © 2016 by Michael Moyes ABSTRACT This Master of Arts thesis examines how political marketing, and the Doer/Dexter model specifically, helped the NDP in Manitoba and Nova Scotia win elections from 1999 through 2007 in Manitoba and in 2009 in Nova Scotia. The study uses content analysis on the election platforms of the period and elite interviews with key political strategists of the NDP in order to gain insight and draw conclusions on what political marketing elements were critical to the party’s electoral success. This study concludes that the NDP in Manitoba and Nova Scotia used market research and a similar comprehensive political marketing strategy, now known as the Doer/Dexter model, which focused on the simplification of communication, the moderation of policy and the inoculation of any perceived weakness in order to win power. i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would first like to thank my loving wife Michelle. I am so grateful for all of your help and support through this whole journey. Without you, none of this would have been possible. I would also like to thank my advisor Dr. Andrea Rounce. Your patience and kindness knows no bounds and I acknowledge that I tested them both. Thank you as well for your insight and advice. I couldn’t have asked for a better advisor. Thank you to my committee members, Dr. Royce Koop, Dr. Barry Ferguson, and Dr. Jared Wesley for your time and feedback. Also, a special thanks to Dr. Jared Wesley for starting me off on this mission and for allowing me to take part in a side project of writing a book chapter. Finally, to my parents, thank you for always believing in me and instilling a sense of purpose. ii DEDICATION This thesis is dedicated to Landon and Nyah. Thank you for being my inspiration and for understanding when Daddy had to write his “book.” iii TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1- WINNING ELECTIONS AND POLITICAL MARKETING 1 Political Marketing 2 Purpose of the Study 3 Significance to the Field 4 Definitions 4 CHAPTER 2- LITERATURE REVIEW 6 Political Marketing Normative Question- Potential Positives 8 Political Marketing Normative Question- Potential Negatives 9 Political Advertising and Political Communication 11 Market Orientation 13 Super-segmentation and Micro-targeting 15 CCF-NDP 17 NDP- Ideological Purity vs Electability 20 New Labour- Old Labour 23 New Labour- Simplification 27 New Labour- Moderation 30 iv The Third Way 31 New Labour- Inoculation 34 Electoral Results- 1997, 2001, 2005 36 CHAPTER 3- METHODOLOGY 39 Research Questions 39 Research Design 40 Participants 40 Interview Data Collection 42 Interview Data Analysis 43 CHAPTER 4- FINDINGS- MANITOBA 44 1988 Election 45 1990 Election 49 1990 Election Platform 50 1995 Election 55 1995 Election Platform 56 The Doer Model 59 Manitoba NDP- Simplification 64 v Manitoba NDP- Moderation 68 The Manitoba Third Way 75 Manitoba NDP- Inoculation 79 Market Research 83 Electoral Results- 1999, 2003, 2007 87 CHAPTER 5- FINDINGS- NOVA SCOTIA 89 1998 Election 90 1998 Election Platform 91 1999 Election 94 1999 Election Platform 95 The Dexter Model 98 Nova Scotia NDP- Simplification 100 Nova Scotia NDP- Moderation 103 Nova Scotia NDP- Inoculation 108 Market Research 116 Electoral Results- 2003, 2007, 2009 117 CHAPTER 6- DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS 120 vi Discussion 120 Discussion- Nova Scotia 2013 Election 122 Discussion- Manitoba 2016 Election 124 Limitations of the Study 124 Conclusions 126 Recommendations for Future Research 128 Reference List 130 Appendix A: Research Ethics Board Approval 136 Appendix B: Informed Consent Form 137 Appendix C: Agreement for Maintaining Confidentiality 139 Appendix D: Interview Questions 140 Appendix E: Initial Contact Script 144 Appendix F: Agreement for Maintaining Confidentiality- “Branding Today’s NDP” 145 vii LIST OF TABLES Table 2.1: New Labour Election Pledges- 1997 – 2005 28 Table 3.1: Interview Participants 41 Table 4.1: Manitoba NDP Election Platforms- 1999 – 2007 73 Table 4.2: Manitoba NDP Market Research Spending- 2005 – 2013 86 Table 5.1: Nova Scotia NDP Election Platforms- 2003 – 2009 105 viii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2.1: New Labour Ten Point Contract 29 Figure 4.1: 1990 Manitoba NDP Election Commitments by Issue 51 Figure 4.2: Manitoba NDP Election Commitments- 1990 – 2007 67 Figure 5.1: 1998 Nova Scotia NDP Election Priorities 92 Figure 5.2: Nova Scotia NDP Election Commitments- 1998 – 2009 103 ix 1. WINNING ELECTIONS AND POLITICAL MARKETING Elections are the cornerstone from which democracy in Canada is based on. As a result, winning elections and forming government tends to be the ultimate goal for most parties. Indeed, given our single member plurality or “first past the post” electoral system, the ability to win a majority of seats is typically vital if a party would like to enact its policies. While participating in the democratic process can be touted as noble and purposeful in its own right, the fact that parties and its leaders are often judged exclusively on their ability to win elections consequently focuses their attention on how they can achieve government. In order to try to win elections, political parties in Canada and around the world are increasingly focused on political marketing.1 Some have even went so far as to call it a “global phenomenon” that promises to transcend ideology and pressure parties, governments and public agencies to be more responsive to the public’s demands.2 Politicians and political parties are ever more looking to enact policies and take positions based on what its target voters or “market” desire.3 Likewise, academics are increasingly interested in studying political marketing to better understand political behaviour.4 While elements of political marketing have been used for decades, the overall emphasis within the political process and how it is used is a relatively new development. 1 Heather Savigny, The Problem of Political Marketing (New York: The Continuum International Publishing Group, 2008), 1. 2 Darren G. Lilleker, Jennifer Lees-Marshment (eds.), Political Marketing: A Comparative Perspective (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2005), 1. 3 Jennifer Lees- Marshment, The Political Marketing Revolution: Transforming the Government of the UK (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2004), 1. 4 Heather Savigny, “The Construction of the Political Consumer,” in Voters or Consumers: Imagining the Contemporary Electorate, eds. Darren Lilleker and Richard Scullion (New Castle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2008), 35. 1 Political marketing is defined by Alex Marland, Thierry Giasson and Jennifer Lees- Marshment as: The application of business marketing concepts to the practice and study of politics and government. With political marketing, a political organization uses business techniques to inform and shape its strategic behaviours that are designed to satisfy citizens’ needs and wants. Strategies and tools include branding, e- marketing, delivery, focus groups, GOTV [get out the vote], internal marketing, listening, exercises, opposition research, volunteer management, voter- driven communication, voter expectation management and voter profiling.5 This definition expands political marketing beyond a tactic or strategy to sell something. Instead, political marketing has now come to focus on a party’s extensive use of market research in order to create a political marketing model.6 Lees-Marshment uses the term “comprehensive political marketing” to describe the seamless integration of marketing into all areas of politics that stems from this change in thinking: To be most effective, political marketing is not just about cherry-picking one or two bits from marketing; it is about an overall framework of interrelated activities that politicians can use to achieve a range of goals… Political parties can use political marketing to increase their chances of achieving their goal of winning general elections. They alter aspects of their behavior to suit the nature and demands of their market.7 In short, politicians and parties are often now looking at policies and decisions through the lens of political marketing. This change toward weaving political marketing into all areas of a political party is evident in the creation of the Doer/Dexter model in Manitoba and Nova Scotia. 5 Alex Marland, Thierry Giasson, Jennifer Lees-Marshment eds., Political Marketing in Canada (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2012), 262. 6 Jennifer Lees-Marshment, Political Marketing: Principles and Application (London: Routledge, 2009), 1. 7 Ibid, 30. 2 The Doer/Dexer model was created following the Manitoba NDP’s three consecutive defeats, between 1988 and 1995, and the Nova Scotia NDP’s failure to win government in 1999. In developing the model, both parties significantly transformed their policies and presentation of the party. The creation of the Doer/Dexter model followed the success of Britain’s New Labour and consisted of the same three main components of simplification, moderation and inoculation. Following the implementation of the Doer/Dexter model the Manitoba NDP were able to win three consecutive elections under Gary Doer and a historic first election victory for the Nova Scotia NDP in 2009 under Darrell Dexter. The purpose of this study is to examine how political marketing helped the NDP in Manitoba and Nova Scotia win elections and to determine the role the Doer/Dexter model played in influencing the party’s decisions. The study focused on five research questions: 1. What was the political context that spurred the creation of the Doer/Dexter model? 2. How did the NDP in Manitoba and Nova Scotia use political marketing, and the Doer/Dexter model specifically, to win government in 1999, 2003 and 2007 in Manitoba and in 2009 in Nova Scotia? 3. What are the main components of the Doer/Dexter model? 4.